Househunt
Houses are like easter eggs.
You wander around aimlessly and stumble upon egg after egg. Some of them are really big but turn out to be dark chocolate. I don't like dark chocolate. Some are big and made from white chocolate. I luuuurv white chocolate. Jen hates it though. The next one is milk chocolate. We both like that! It's tiny and covered in cat pee. The hunt continues.
After a few houses you get a pretty good idea of what you like or don't like and more importantly what your S.O. doesn't like.
Location: not super important for me. I spent most of my time at work anyway. For Jen it is.
Light: likewise.
Size: likewise.
We notice a trend.
I would've bought a house way earlier in the hunt if it was just me, but I'm glad it isn't. If I see now what we ended up with I can only be super glad Jen stopped us from buying too early.
Some hunt-highlights:
The bathroom in the living room.
When you entered the house there was a small hallway. You see a door to the left. You go in and see this mega-cubicle with walls that don't reach to the ceiling. It contains a toilet, lavabo and a bath. You wonder about the sanity of the people that lived here before you. You go to the staircase to go to the first floor. There's a one-person-lift attached to the staircase. The old lady couldn't walk upstairs anymore so they put the bathroom in her living room. Houses have stories.
The unsellable house
This one was in Tâm and Kris's street. Yes, there's a giant highway in front of you and a giant wall behind you. But there was no noise problem. Still, location-value is close to zero. It's super small. It's so small that they put 2 giant 1000l containers in the basement full of mazout and put the CV on the terras. Yes, on the terras. At least there's no ventilation problem there. On the terras there was a smelly hole in the ground. 'for a second toilet'. I see. Upstairs there was 1 bedroom and 1 toilet. Hmm.. so bathroom? Oh, there's a shower cell in the toilet. The lavabo is around the corner from that in the middle of the hallway. These people were inventive. The yard is 6 square meters. That's probably too generous. It's still for sale for € 169.000.
The auction
There it was! A dreamhouse. Big and lots of light, right behind the station in Kessel-Lo. It needed a LOT of work. They put heating elements in on gyproc walls without the proper tools and they were coming lose. You don't want to have a heating element falling on your toes. Also, heating elements without an actual heater don't work so well. The whole house had been 'renovated' by clandestine nomad tribesmen. I have nothing against nomads, but they're not so great at building houses. A fountain also exploded in the middle of the house and created extensive waterdamage. Still, so much potential! Generally when a realtor says 'the house has potential' you should run away screaming. But this place actually had it. So, off we went to the auction. First we couldn't find the room, but eventually us and maybe 10 other people were there to bid on their dream house. One of them was the roommate of my new collegue that started that week. Leuven is a small world. In the end the war was between us and the dad-half of fille-è-papa. The fille seemed to be in a very good mood after they won. The dad just seemed pissed I cost him about € 40.000. That was a good feeling, I can't deny
'The House'
The one we bought. It's gigantesque. It will take 3 weeks of living in it before we know for sure what door opens into what. It has a living room, a dining room opening into a kitchen, a bathroom, a veranda, a 'waskot', 4 bedrooms, another bedroom and a lot of attic space. Oh, and an 80m yard. In Heverlee. W00t! The catch? The roof is from 1915. Insulation is non-existent. The central heater is from the sixties. It used to work on coal but got converted to mazout. The electricity works but doesn't live up to modern standards. That's it really.
The feeling of dread and doom
You walk around in a house for 15 minutes. After 2 minutes of deliberation you decide to spend € 245.000 on it.
Sounds crazy, right? That's because it IS crazy.
Now comes the stewing period. We made this incredibly life-changing decision but can't actually see what it's like yet for another 3-4 months. The mind boggles.
We'll get through it. It'll be grand.
You're all invited to a housewarming party featuring the 'Euro-gaming room (painted in black to avoid all distraction', the 'party-gaming room with fluffy pillows and lots of purple', the 'Kaia-floor'. (Yes, the child will have her own floor, enter at your own risk), the art-studio (Jen was instantly inspired), lounge-area's 1, 2 and 3 in the yard with a pool, a jacuzi a sauna and a tennis court. We're not sure yet about the 18-hole golf course.
Keep on dreaming!
You wander around aimlessly and stumble upon egg after egg. Some of them are really big but turn out to be dark chocolate. I don't like dark chocolate. Some are big and made from white chocolate. I luuuurv white chocolate. Jen hates it though. The next one is milk chocolate. We both like that! It's tiny and covered in cat pee. The hunt continues.
After a few houses you get a pretty good idea of what you like or don't like and more importantly what your S.O. doesn't like.
Location: not super important for me. I spent most of my time at work anyway. For Jen it is.
Light: likewise.
Size: likewise.
We notice a trend.
I would've bought a house way earlier in the hunt if it was just me, but I'm glad it isn't. If I see now what we ended up with I can only be super glad Jen stopped us from buying too early.
Some hunt-highlights:
The bathroom in the living room.
When you entered the house there was a small hallway. You see a door to the left. You go in and see this mega-cubicle with walls that don't reach to the ceiling. It contains a toilet, lavabo and a bath. You wonder about the sanity of the people that lived here before you. You go to the staircase to go to the first floor. There's a one-person-lift attached to the staircase. The old lady couldn't walk upstairs anymore so they put the bathroom in her living room. Houses have stories.
The unsellable house
This one was in Tâm and Kris's street. Yes, there's a giant highway in front of you and a giant wall behind you. But there was no noise problem. Still, location-value is close to zero. It's super small. It's so small that they put 2 giant 1000l containers in the basement full of mazout and put the CV on the terras. Yes, on the terras. At least there's no ventilation problem there. On the terras there was a smelly hole in the ground. 'for a second toilet'. I see. Upstairs there was 1 bedroom and 1 toilet. Hmm.. so bathroom? Oh, there's a shower cell in the toilet. The lavabo is around the corner from that in the middle of the hallway. These people were inventive. The yard is 6 square meters. That's probably too generous. It's still for sale for € 169.000.
The auction
There it was! A dreamhouse. Big and lots of light, right behind the station in Kessel-Lo. It needed a LOT of work. They put heating elements in on gyproc walls without the proper tools and they were coming lose. You don't want to have a heating element falling on your toes. Also, heating elements without an actual heater don't work so well. The whole house had been 'renovated' by clandestine nomad tribesmen. I have nothing against nomads, but they're not so great at building houses. A fountain also exploded in the middle of the house and created extensive waterdamage. Still, so much potential! Generally when a realtor says 'the house has potential' you should run away screaming. But this place actually had it. So, off we went to the auction. First we couldn't find the room, but eventually us and maybe 10 other people were there to bid on their dream house. One of them was the roommate of my new collegue that started that week. Leuven is a small world. In the end the war was between us and the dad-half of fille-è-papa. The fille seemed to be in a very good mood after they won. The dad just seemed pissed I cost him about € 40.000. That was a good feeling, I can't deny
'The House'
The one we bought. It's gigantesque. It will take 3 weeks of living in it before we know for sure what door opens into what. It has a living room, a dining room opening into a kitchen, a bathroom, a veranda, a 'waskot', 4 bedrooms, another bedroom and a lot of attic space. Oh, and an 80m yard. In Heverlee. W00t! The catch? The roof is from 1915. Insulation is non-existent. The central heater is from the sixties. It used to work on coal but got converted to mazout. The electricity works but doesn't live up to modern standards. That's it really.
The feeling of dread and doom
You walk around in a house for 15 minutes. After 2 minutes of deliberation you decide to spend € 245.000 on it.
Sounds crazy, right? That's because it IS crazy.
Now comes the stewing period. We made this incredibly life-changing decision but can't actually see what it's like yet for another 3-4 months. The mind boggles.
We'll get through it. It'll be grand.
You're all invited to a housewarming party featuring the 'Euro-gaming room (painted in black to avoid all distraction', the 'party-gaming room with fluffy pillows and lots of purple', the 'Kaia-floor'. (Yes, the child will have her own floor, enter at your own risk), the art-studio (Jen was instantly inspired), lounge-area's 1, 2 and 3 in the yard with a pool, a jacuzi a sauna and a tennis court. We're not sure yet about the 18-hole golf course.
Keep on dreaming!